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Konami Talks Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

At a roundtable discussion at E3 2010, Konami's head of product planning and development Dave Cox discussed the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Developed by MercurySteam and supervised by Kojima Productions, Lords of Shadow should be a major overhaul for the series. While Castlevania has been brilliant in 2D, Konami hopes that this game will finally allow the series to succeed in 3D.
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In addition to revealing that the overall story was written for two games, Cox touched on several aspects of Lords of Shadow and its development. Here's what he had to say.

On working with Hideo Kojima:

We take Kojima Productions' advice seriously and respectfully, but we don't always follow it.

On the game's protagonist, Gabriel Belmont:

The game was originally pitched as a Castlevania remake starring Simon Belmont. Kojima joked with us that we're going to be changing Gabriel's character design up to the very end.

We originally wanted Gerard Butler for the game [as Gabriel], but he was unavailable.

On fans that aren't giving the game a chance out of loyalty to Koji Igarashi:

I think those fans are the minority. While I respect everything that Iga has done, I consider this a fresh start for the series.

On the essence of Castlevania:

It's about a guy surrounded by evil, armed with his trusty whip.

On being compared to games like God of War and Uncharted:

Sometimes it does bother me, but I understand why it happens. We haven't revealed every aspect of the game yet. So when people say it's just like Uncharted or it's just like God of War it's... tough because they haven't yet seen everything the game has to offer.

The demo is very linear, but there's a lot of exploration in the game. In fact, we try to encourage players to explore in the game.

On the combat in Lords of Shadow:

We want the combat to be snappy, like a fighting game. We don't use a lot of elaborate animations for the whip. We made it very fast and very snappy. We have combos. We have dodging. We really want it to feel fast.

On the sequel for Lords of Shadow:

The game has been written as two stories. There's a conclusion to this story, but there will be lots of question at the end. We're setting up a big "what the fuck" moment for players.

On fans' apprehension towards the game:

Initially I think there was a fear. People were thinking, "Whoa. This isn't the Castlevania I know." After people see more and more of it, I think they see that it really is Castlevania. On paper it doesn't seem that way and thought so in Japan as well, but once they saw it they agreed that it is true to Castlevania.

Coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Lords of Shadow is due out in Fall 2010.

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